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About 12,000 Afghan refugees will begin 2022 in UK hotels as the government struggles to persuade enough councils to find permanent homes for the new arrivals, the Guardian has learned.

Of the 16,500 people airlifted from Afghanistan to the UK since August, over 4,000 individuals have either moved into a settled home or are in the process of being moved or matched to a suitable home, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The rest wait eagerly for news of where they will begin to rebuild their lives, though many say their hearts remain in Afghanistan, where they hope to return one day.

They will not be evenly distributed across the UK after the government decided not to force local authorities to rehouse the refugees. More than 300 local authorities in the UK have stepped up to offer permanent accommodation, according to a Home Office spokesperson.

According to the most recent figures, by the end of September, councils in Yorkshire and the Humber had welcomed 213 of the 770 Afghans resettled across the UK this year. Ninety-two of those were in Bradford, compared with just 24 across all the London councils. After Bradford, Edinburgh was the city to have resettled the most Afghans this year: 67.

As of 7 December, about 7,500 people had been relocated to the UK under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap), which offered sanctuary to any current or former UK government employees who faced intimidation or a threat to their life.

Operation Pitting, the Afghan airlift in August, brought 15,000 people to the UK. Since the evacuation, a further 1,500 people have followed.

More than 12,000 Afghan evacuees remained in bridging accommodation as of 22 December, according to sources at both the DWP and Home Office. At least 4,000 of those are in London, according to London Councils, the local government association for Greater London.

London council officials described the situation in hotels as chaos and expressed particular concern about the unsuitability of hotels in the long term to accommodate the large number of children currently living in them.

Many now have community ties with London, children have started school and as time goes by it will be harder to uproot them and move them to a different part of the country where there is a greater supply of affordable accommodation. While the government made housing grants available for the new arrivals, none of the Afghans who arrived in the UK after 31 August are eligible for these grants.

The vast majority of Afghan refugees stuck in hotels are not able to work yet because they do not have permanent addresses and cannot guarantee to an employer that they will not be shipped across the country with minimal notice.

Benafsha Yaqoobi, a visually impaired commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, who has been living in a four-star central London hotel since August, said the local council had advised some Afghans that they could not work while they were stuck in the hotels.

Some guests were very excited to have found jobs, only to be told they could not take them, she said, because it was not known where they would be relocated, they could end up in Scotland.

Living in a hotel for so long was hard, said Yaqoobi, who is sharing a room with her husband, Mehdi Salami, who is also visually impaired. For me, for all Afghan people who are here, its very difficult, especially with Covid increasing these days. In a hotel and living like this, its not easy.

When the Guardian spoke to Yaqoobi in September, she pleaded for world leaders to help more disabled people flee Afghanistan. She continues to be very worried about the disabled children she used to help with her charity, the Rahyab Organisation, who she had to leave behind, and hopes to begin studying for a PhD.

Three months on, she has struck up a friendship with Mozghan Shaban, a DWP employee originally from Afghanistan, who spent several weeks going from hotel to hotel in London helping the new arrivals apply for universal credit.

The DWP had processed more than 3,000 claims for universal credit, as of 3 December, covering more than 4,700 people. The government legislated to exempt those arriving under the Afghan relocation and resettlement schemes from the usual residency tests which restrict access to certain benefits upon arrival in the UK.

Shaban, whose family fled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, can speak Farsi, one of the main Afghan languages, and was well placed to help the new arrivals navigate British bureaucracy.

She is well known around the hotels for her jokes, reassuring the guests that they do not need to fear their new country the worst youll get is rain. She describes herself as a therapist, mum, sister who helps them understand British customs and culture and particularly gender roles.

Some of the families who have come here are very, very traditional, she said. Its quite customary for a girl or woman to stand up and offer her seat to, say, her brother or her father. Thats just a thing that we do out of respect, because in Afghanistan men are treated as gods and women, not so much.

She preempts cultural misunderstandings too: I had to explain to people that if they go out on the street, dont stare too much at a woman. And to explain that the LGBTQ community is quite large here.

She has been amazed by the Afghans positivity: The energy that they have for life is just so inspiring. Theyve been knocked out several times over decades and decades of war and they still get up and theyre still willing to rebuild the life in a completely different country, not knowing the language, not knowing the environment, not knowing anything.

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12,000 Afghan refugees to start new year stuck in UK hotels - The Guardian

Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the US and its allies have watched and waited to see how the group would govern before deciding whether to recognize their leadership and lift financial sanctions. But as critical programs run out of funding and the threat of mass starvation looms, this approach is no longer tenable.

WASHINGTON, DC The Afghan economy is in free fall. Public-sector employees teachers, health-care workers, bureaucrats, police are not being paid, the currency has lost a fifth of its value, and shortages of food, medicines, and everyday products are growing. Even when these items are available, many households cannot afford to buy them.

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It was inevitable that the countrys takeover by the Taliban and the withdrawal of American and allied forces would leave most Afghans economically worse off and personally less free. Still, few anticipated the speed and scale of the humanitarian catastrophe now taking shape.

While the international community decides how to calibrate its response or if it should respond at all life in Afghanistan is becoming more difficult. Aid flows, which financed 75% of the countrys national budget before the Taliban seized power, have mostly dried up. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have halted their substantial funding. Afghanistans $7 billion of reserves in the United States have been frozen by President Joe Bidens administration. And fear of violating sanctions has stopped banks and businesses from engaging even in permitted activities.

In addition, education and health programs risk closure not because of decisions by the new government, but because they have no money. This, too reflects the international communitys indecision about how best to approach Afghanistan under the Taliban.

On one side, there are calls to respond urgently to the humanitarian crisis and continue to work to preserve the gains of the past two decades in human development, especially for women and girls. For this to happen, aid and trade need to keep flowing, and the international community must engage with the countrys new leaders. A small subset of this group would go further, arguing that the international community must accept the reality of the new government and work with it more broadly, just as it does with many other governments that represent objectionable policies and behavior.

On the other side are those who start from the premise that Afghanistan is now ruled by a party that has taken power by force. Moreover, the Talibans values and policies are fundamentally at odds with what the international community has promoted for the last two decades, and its early actions hold little promise of a smooth future relationship. For this camp, any action that helps bolster the popularity or effectiveness of the Talibans government, even as a collateral effect, crosses a red line.

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Those who are reluctant to provide aid want to be sure that any funds given to Afghanistan are not diverted to general expenditures that strengthen the new government. They also want to ensure that easing access to funding is matched by positive actions from the Afghan leadership. These are valid points, but they will not convince the 23 million Afghans at risk of starvation as the harsh winter approaches.

As images of widespread hunger force Afghanistan back into the global spotlight, the calls to increase financial support will be hard to resist. Those calls will be stronger if even a small fraction of desperate Afghans vote with their feet and trigger a new, massive refugee crisis. For some perspective, consider that nearly a third of Syrias pre-civil war population of 20 million became refugees, with an additional third internally displaced. Afghanistans population is close to 40 million.

The consequences of an imploding Afghanistan, with or without Taliban leadership, will not be contained within the countrys insecure and porous borders. At a minimum, Afghanistans neighbors will feel the effects of its economic, security, and humanitarian crises and they are not well positioned to manage these challenges.

Careful, considered work to loosen financial restrictions needs to start now, taking into account some consequential trade-offs. Two actions could provide near-term, targeted relief.

First, the US Treasury needs to clarify the scope and operation of financial sanctions for humanitarian and development work and to broaden the range of permitted activities. The Treasury should apply to Afghanistan the lessons from its own review of sanctions programs, which calls for greater precision and better targeting to avoid unintended consequences for civilian populations.

Second, the international community should allow a limited, monitored release of Afghanistans frozen reserves to pay for essential imports of food, fuel, and medicine. Access could start small and be audited independently, with an option to terminate in the event of misuse.

Both of these proposals can be implemented relatively quickly, and both have recent precedents specifically, in relations with Venezuela and Yemen.

When faced with difficult choices, there is a natural tendency to delay. These targeted measures will, of course, attract criticism from both those who think they fall short and those who believe they go too far. But opting for a middle path now is unambiguously better than delaying a decision in the hope that a more attractive option will emerge.

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Saving Afghanistan Despite the Taliban by Masood Ahmed - Project Syndicate

With the Taliban regime completing four months in power in Afghanistan next week, its leadership has conveyed to the US government that it would be ready with a roadmap for an inclusive government by the end of March 2022, News18.com has learnt.

Sources told News18 that Taliban leadership in the last meeting with the US State Departments Special Representative Thomas West has conveyed that that they need four months to conclude consultations with their top leadership to shape a roadmap for an inclusive government in the war-torn country.

Though sources added that this is just way of buying more time and it is to be seen if Taliban stood by its words. It is noteworthy that many countries, including India, have been of the view that an inclusive government should be formed in Afghanistan that represents the will of all the people of Afghanistan and has representation from all sections of their society, including major ethno-political forces in the country.

Turkey is providing space to the Resistance for talks

The Resistance leaders are regularly meeting in Turkey to chalk out a strategy to build pressure on the Taliban regime to form an inclusive government, and ensure human rights of the women, children and minority communities are upheld, sources said, adding that Salahuddin Rabbani, Ustad Sayyaf, former vice-President Sarwar Danish, Ustad Khalili, Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, former vice-president Karim Khalili, former interior minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, former Head of NDS Rahmatullah Nabil are in regular touch and are holding meetings in Turkey.

It may be small or big, but resistance is there from within and outside the country and soon Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Masood may also travel to Turkey to hold talks with other resistance leaders, the sources said.

The motive is to put pressure on Taliban to form inclusive government through diplomatic means, developing international pressure and pressure within the country, they added.

Whats interesting to note is that though countries like Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan do not provide space for such consultations, Turkey is providing it, along with Iran.

Modalities being worked out for Indias humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan

Sources told News18 that India and Pakistan are engaged in working out the modalities for transporting 50 thousand MT Wheat and medicines to Afghanistan through the Wagah-Attari Border. The Afghan Trucks are allowed till Wagah and trade between India and Afghanistan is going on, they said, but added that these trucks are going back empty.

They also informed that Afghanistan diplomats have suggested that the trucks going empty could be put use to send assistance back to Afghanistan, but there is no agreement as of yet.

Meanwhile, sources in Afghanistan have suggested that Indian Government should also appoint a Special Representative for Afghanistan for having direct talks with Taliban leadership, like countries such as the US, China, Pakistan, Iran and Russia have done.

2,500 Afghan Students stuck in Afghanistan

With the fall of Afghanistan, over 2,500 Afgan students, who were studying in different educational institutions in India, remain stranded in the war-torn country. They are students of Delhi University, JNU, Jamia Islamia and other institutes and cannot travel to India as there are no direct flights, and their Indian visas revoked after the fall of Kabul. Afghanistan Envoy to India, Farid Mamundzay told News18, Its important to bring these 2,500 students to India to resume their studies and hopefully contribute the rebuilding of Afghanistan in the future.

Even with the Taliban taking over the country, the whole of Afghanistan is not Taliban, he added.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.

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Taliban to Present Roadmap for 'Inclusive Govt' in Afghanistan by March 2022 as 'Resistance' Talks Go On - News18

Dominic Raab grilled on by Dan Walker on his Afghanistan role

US President Joe Biden received massive criticism as his country led the Wests chaotic withdrawal of Afghanistan in August. On August 15 the Taliban seized the capital city of Kabul to the surprise of the US government, and the US embassy evacuated and retreated to Hamid Karzai International Airport. What followed was a frenzied evacuation process that has been likened in some quarters to when the last Americans were airlifted out of Saigon, which marked a bloody end to the Vietnam War.

Yet before the US involvement in Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union occupied the country.

The Soviet Union marched into Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, 1979, claiming it had been invited by the new Afghan communist leader, Babrak Karmal.

What followed was a guerilla war between an insurgent group funded by the West, known collectively as the Mujahideen, against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

The Soviets struggled in the harsh cold Afghan terrain, and by 1987 announced it would be withdrawing from the region and leaving the Afghan government alone to fight against the insurgents.

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Professor Grover, who is an expert political expert, claimed that the US ridiculed the Soviet Union throughout the Eighties for their involvement in the region before entering Afghanistan themselves in 2001.

He told Express.co.uk: A conversation were not having in this country is what it means to be a declining empire.

Setting aside the way that we withdrew from Afghanistan, it was a 20-year fiasco.

I remember very distinctly Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party just ridiculing the Soviets for being in Afghanistan.

[They said] what a foolish thing that was, and how that was a decline of the Soviet sphere of influence, which it was.

Were in the middle of the same kind of thing now but you cant have that kind of conversation in America.

The whole American exceptionalism myth is still really really powerful.

The war lasted nine years and has been cited as the Soviet Unions Vietnam War, and a contributing factor to its dissolution by a range of scholars.

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The international community imposed numerous sanctions and embargoes against the Soviet Union upon their invasion.

The US even boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Of course, after the Soviets left in humiliation, the US was the next great power to wade in the region following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The US invaded to oust the Taliban regime, which had harboured al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden but remained in the region for two decades before Augusts evacuation.

Meanwhile, in the UK the Foreign Offices handling of the Afghan evacuation was dysfunctional and chaotic, according to a whistleblower.

In written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Raphael Marshall claimed the process of choosing who could get a flight out was arbitrary and that thousands of emails pleading for help went unread.

Mr Marshall added that the then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was slow to make decisions.

The UK airlifted 15,000 people out of Afghanistan, including 5000 British nationals, 8000 Afghans and 2000 children, after the Taliban took control of Kabul.

Mr Marshall claimed that up to 150,000 Afghans who were at risk because of their links to the UK, applied to be evacuated but less than five percent received any assistance.

In response, Mr Raab said the two-week evacuation was the biggest operation in living memory and that the UK helped a larger number of people than any other nation except the US.

He added that the criticism of his decision making was from a relatively junior desk officer and that the main challenges were in verifying the identities of applicants on the ground and safely escorting to Kabul airport, not in decision making in Whitehall.

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Afghanistan U-turn: US ridiculed Soviets for activity in country before invasion - Daily Express

Afghan conductor Shogufa Safi has been named as one of the BBCs 100 women of 2021.She is the conductor of Zohra, Afghanistans first all-female orchestra, made up of 13 to 20-year-olds, many of whom are orphans or come from poverty. Zohra was previously based at the celebrated Afghanistan National Institute of Music, but all its musicians have recently been forced to flee the country with many leaving behind instruments. The school was closed down after the Taliban regained power earlier this year. Along with her colleagues, Safi escaped to Doha in Qatar.

Hope never fails, says Shogufa Safi. Even in the total darkness, I believe my baton will be a beacon of hope and light for Afghanistan.

The Zohra ensemble is named after a Persian goddess of music and were formed in 2016, with musicians from the Afghanistan National Institute of Musicians.

The orchestra plays a mix of Afghan and western classical music, and have played on many international stages. In 2017, the ensemble played world leaders out at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The musicians came to the UK for the first time in 2019 to play with the London-based Orchestra of St Johns at the British Library and University of Oxford, bringing with them the instruments of their homeland.

Since being forced to flee Afghanistan earlier this year, the exiled Zohra musicians have reunited in Doha, performing to a live audience with their colleagues from the Afghanistan National Institute of Musicians.

Conductor of the Afghan National Orchestra Mohammed Qambar Nawshad leads musicians of the Afghanistan National Institute of Musicians (ANIM) and the Zohra Orchestra in a concert in the Qatari capital Doha on October 18, 2021

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music was founded in 2008 with international support, designed to bring music education to young Afghans. Under the Taliban regime, music had been under threat and ANIM had been a target, particularly due to its efforts to promote the education of girls. It was a trailblazing institution, providing music education to boys and girls in the same classrooms, which was a rarity in Afghanistan following the years of Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. Both Afghan and western classical music was studied.

When the Taliban regained control in August 2021, the school fell silent and students made the journey from Kabul to Doha to escape the regime. The students are all fearful and concerned. They clearly understand that if they return to the school, they might face consequences or be punished for what theyve been doing, the schools founder and director, Dr Ahmad Sarmast, told the BBC in August.

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music was home to Zohra, which Shogufa Safi conducted.

The extent of a potential Taliban-enforced music ban has not been made clear, but Kabul residents are worried the country will revert to its 1996 status when the majority of playing and listening to music was outlawed.

The ANIM has been updating its supporters and donors on the airlifts of students, faculty, staff and family members to Qatar. The hope is for the school to be rebuilt in Portugal. The Zohra Orchestra has now also been evacuated to Doha.

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Why Shogufa Safi and Afghanistan's first all-female orchestra have been forced to flee their country - Classical-Music.com